World’s Most Useful Tree

Briefly: Every part of Moringa tree can be used for food or has some other beneficial property

moringa

Can you name the world’s most useful tree?

A tree whose almost every part can be used for food or has some other beneficial property. Clue: Most Indians eat the fruit of the trees.

The answer: The drumstick tree. Its called Moringa (in Tamil): Murungai(in Malaylam) and Sojne (in Bangla). Its botanical name, Moringa oleifera tree. The seeds of the tree, according to Current Protocols in Microbiology, could help drastically reduce the incidence of waterborne disease in the developing world.

The procedure, which uses seeds from the Moringa oleifera tree, can produce a 90.00% to 99.99% bacterial reduction in previously untreated water, and has been made free to download as part of access programs under John Wiley and Sons’ Corporate Citizenship Initiative.

Michael Lea, a Current Protocols author and a researcher at Clearinghouse, a Canadian organisation dedicated to investigating and implementing low-cost water purification technologies, believes the Moringa oleifera tree could go a long way to providing a solution.

“Not only is it drought resistant, it also yields cooking and lighting oil, soil fertilizer, as well as highly nutritious food in the form of its pods, leaves, seeds and flowers. Perhaps most importantly, its seeds can be used to purify drinking water at virtually no cost.”

Moringa tree seeds, when crushed into powder, can be used as a water-soluble extract in suspension, resulting in an effective natural clarification agent for highly turbid and untreated pathogenic surface water. As well as improving drinkability, this technique reduces water turbidity (cloudiness) making the result aesthetically as well as microbiologically more acceptable for human consumption.

Despite its live-saving potential, the technique is still not widely known, even in areas where the Moringa is routinely cultivated. Moringa tree seeds, when crushed into powder, can be used as a water-soluble extract in suspension, resulting in an effective natural clarification agent for highly turbid and untreated pathogenic surface water. As well as improving drinkability, this technique reduces water turbidity (cloudiness) making the result aesthetically as well as microbiologically more acceptable for human consumption.

The immature green pods called “drumsticks” are probably the most valued and widely used part of the tree. They are commonly consumed and are generally prepared in a similar fashion to green beans and have a slight asparagus taste. The seeds are sometimes removed from more mature pods and eaten like peas or roasted like nuts. The flowers are edible when cooked, and are said to taste like mushrooms. The roots are shredded and used as a condiment in the same way as horseradish; however, it contains the alkaloid spirochin, a potentially fatal nerve-paralyzing agent, so such practices should be strongly discouraged.

Leaves can be eaten fresh, cooked, or stored as dried powder for many months without refrigeration, and reportedly without loss of nutritional value. Moringa is especially promising as a food source in the tropics because the tree is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically scarce.

A large number of reports on the nutritional qualities of Moringa now exist in both the scientific and the popular literature. It is commonly said that Moringa leaves contain more Vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, more Vitamin C than oranges, and more potassium than bananas,” and that the protein quality of Moringa leaves rivals that of milk and eggs.

Moringa has approximately 46 antioxidants and is one of the most powerful sources of natural anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants supply the free atoms needed by the human body and mitigate the effect of free radicals. Moringa leaves are rich in Flavonoids, a class of anti-oxidants. The major anti-oxidants present are Quercetin, Kaempferol, Beta-Sitosterol, Caffeoylquinic acid and Zeatin. Antioxidants play a major role in controlling the symptoms of aging process and improve the cardiovascular health. Additionally, Vitamin C & Vitamin E, present in Moringa, also function as anti-oxidants. Researches confirm that the anti-oxidants deliver the desired result, if only taken with the combination of other essential vitamin and minerals, which makes health enthusiast to seek after Moringa. Moringa leaves and fruits are loaded with Phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are certain organic components of plants, and these components are thought to promote human health. The phytonutrients present in Moringa include, Alpha-carotene, Beta-Carotene, Beta-cryptoxanthin, Lutein, Zeaxanthin and Chlorophyll. Phytonutrients flushes toxins from the body, purifies the liver, helps to strengthen the immune system, helps in rebuilding the red blood cells and the important of all, Moringa Phytonutrients rejuvenate the body at the cellular level.

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5 thoughts on “World’s Most Useful Tree”

Hello
I am surprised to know about Drumstick tree as being so useful…..we use drumstick in our very tasty Gujrathi dal very often………and at times make a delecious vegetable out of it…
also recently got to know that its flowers are the best to attract Honey bees..
we call this tree “Sekta nu jhad” and Drumstick as “sekta ne Sing”…

Must say you have come up with a very intresting Blog on sunday farming..looking forward for more such valuable information…..

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